


Should I Stay or Should I Go

by softboystanley



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: M/M, So basically, except for will saving nancy, im ignoring all of the comic canon, it set waaayy back in s1, keeps him going, mike can hear wills messages over the walkie talkie and it like, sorry if i did a horrible job of recaping s1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 17:03:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17328995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softboystanley/pseuds/softboystanley
Summary: It all started on the very first night Will went missing. Mike had already set up El in the basement. He was up in his room, fiddling with his walkie talkie. All at once, his ears were flooded with a sharp shrieking noise and then nothing at all. He heard a soft voice speak through the walkie.I don’t know if anyone is listening, or if this message can even get through, but..My name is Will Byers.





	Should I Stay or Should I Go

**Author's Note:**

> screw the comic canon im just pulling from season 1 and the recaping sucks sorry

It had been about 24 hours since Will Byers was declared missing. He had disappeared on a bike ride home, late at night. Everyone in town was searching desperately for him, including his party members. Dustin, Lucas, and Mike had gone against the Chief’s warnings and searched for him as the rain fell. Instead of finding their missing best friend, they found a lab rat, searching for refuge. Her name was Eleven, but they called her El for short. She had found a home in Mike’s basement, in a small fort he had made, just for her. But that is not what this story is about, no this story is about two boys, one trapped somewhere far away, and the special connection they share. 

 

It all started on the very first night Will went missing. Mike had already set up El in the basement. He was up in his room, fiddling with his walkie talkie. All at once, his ears were flooded with a sharp shrieking noise and then nothing at all. He heard a soft voice speak through the walkie. 

 

_ I don’t know if anyone is listening, or if this message can even get through, but..My name is Will Byers. I was riding my bike home from my best friend’s house when.. I saw this thing. It was huge, maybe six, seven feet tall. It looked almost human but, it’s arms we’re so long that it looked like something out of a horror movie. It chased me all the way home and then, when I ran out into my shed, it took me to this place. I-I can’t even describe it here. There’s things floating around in the air, and black goo covering everything. It looks exactly like Hawkins but it’s abandoned and dark, and really cold. No one is here except for me and that creature. I can hear it’s shrieks, even now. I just want to go home.  _

 

The message cut out. Mike could barely fathom what he had just heard. Will was alive! He returned with a message of his own. “Will! It’s me, Mike! Do you copy? Over.” Mike only heard static in response. “Will, do you copy? Over.” Static. “Will! Please!” Mike pleaded, and was again only met with static. 

 

_ Darling you got to let me know.  _

 

Will’s voice sang softly over Mike’s radio as he sang the only song that brought him comfort. Mike had given up trying to speak back to him. It was clear it wouldn’t work. He accepted his defeat as he climbed into his bed. 

 

_ Should I stay or should I go. If you say that you are mine, I’ll be here til the end of time.  _

 

Mike layed in bed and drifted off to Will’s voice, singing ever so sweetly through the walkie talkie. 

 

_ So you got to let me know. Should I stay or should I go.  _

 

“Please come home.” Mike whispered in secret to the sound of Will as a tear rolled down his cheek, before he went to the land of dreams, where he and Will could be together forever. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The very next night, after Mike had said goodnight to El and left her in the blanket fort with only an eggo, he heard Will’s voice. 

 

_ It’s my second day here, in this place. I’m thinking about calling it the Upside Down, because it’s like the home I remember but not quite. I miss my mom. I found the ‘upside down’ version of Castle Byers today. I remember when my mom came out to my fort and told me we could go see Poltergeist. She did her witch impression that used to scare me when I was younger.  _

 

Mike heard Will start to sniffle. His heart started to ache with an emptiness he couldn’t understand. 

 

_ I miss Jonathan too. He helped me build Castle Byers. He would say the I missed every nail. He was always trying to improve upon it, too. ‘Maybe if we put in this’ or ‘Maybe if I did that’. He never understood that it was perfect to me. That was Jonathan, he was such a perfectionist.  _

 

Mike heard Will laugh. 

 

_ I miss Mike. Maybe the most. His laugh and his hair, I miss it all. His freckles, and his eagerness for new D&D campaigns. I love him. More than he could know.  _

 

Mike’s entire body went cold. He let out a shaky breath as he heard his own name. And Will missed him the most? Over his mother, his brother? Everyone. And.. and Will loved him? Mike desperately wanted to grab the radio and tell Will that he was here, listening. So he did. 

 

_ Will? This is Mike. I’m not sure if you can hear me or not but… I can hear you. I’m trying to find you, to save you. I found this girl, Eleven. I think she can help you. She has these powers. She’s like a Jedi Master. I’m going to bring you home. So you can be with your mom and Jonathan. Pretty soon, your going to be with me, and Dustin and Lucas and we’re all going to be playing D&D. Because Will, nothing can stop me. Because I, I love you.  _

 

Mike knew Will wouldn’t respond. He didn’t know if Will couldn’t or didn’t want to but he had given up hope. But he meant every single fucking word he had said. He was going to bring Will home. Even if it killed him. And judging by the sound of ‘the bad men’ El keeps talking about, he just might. 

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Mike came home the next day, crying. He didn’t care if El had made it back. He didn’t care if Dustin and Lucas had taken her with them. He didn’t care about anything. He sprinted up the stairs, tears streaming down his face and darted into his room. He snagged the walkie talkie off his dresser and sat on his bed. 

 

He frantically tuned the radio, trying to hear Will’s voice again. Lucas’s voice kept rushing through his mind. ‘It’s really Will.’ 

 

It couldn’t be Will. It had to be some other kid. He had just heard Will yesterday. He was fine. He was in some other-worldly version of Castle Byers. He had told Mike about how he missed Jonathan and his mom. He couldn’t be dead. 

 

“Please, please.” He pleaded, tears streaming down his freckles face. 

 

“Don’t be dead, Will. I need you.” Static noise overtook his ears as a message from Will came in. 

 

_ I had a run-in with whatever that creature is today. I was out walking looking for anything that could help me, when I saw it coming through the trees. It chased me and.. I fell. I cut my knee. I got away though. And that’s all that matters.  I have to stay alive so that when someone finds me, I can go home. If anyone’s even looking.  _

 

“I’m looking, Will. I’ll always be looking.” Mike cried as he got into bed holding the walkie talkie. 

 

_ If I go there will be trouble.  _

 

Mike cradled the radio in his hands, tears still falling, as he started to drift off, feeling farer away from Will. Unable to reach him. 

 

_ And if I stay it will be double. So come on and let me know.  _

 

“Should I stay or should I go.” Mike finished. 

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“El, how did you know that Will was alive?” Mike asked when he and El were alone. He was of course referring to when El flipped their D&D board and put Will’s character there, with the Demogorgon. Could that Demogorgon be the same thing that chased Will in the Upside Down?

 

“Feel him.” She responded, vague as ever. 

 

“How? Can you track people?” 

 

“Sense.” 

 

Mike rolled his eyes and went back to looking through some of Will’s old drawings. Out of the corner of his eye he saw El fiddling with his walkie talkie. The static poured into his ears and pounded in his brain until it stopped and was substituted with Will, singing the Clash. 

“Will.” El said, definitively. 

 

Mike stood up and walked over to her. “H-How did you do that? I’ve been tapping into his messages for days.” Suddenly an idea popped in his head. “Could you find him, using this?” 

 

El shrugged. “Bigger radio.” 

 

“Bigger radio, bigger radio.” Mike mumbled thinking of how he could get one. “I got it!” He yelled suddenly which startledly El slightly. 

 

“There’s a radio for school that we use for AV club, and it might work. I’ll ask the guys to come around tomorrow and we can devise a plan for getting you into school.” 

 

Later, when Mike was just about to go to bed, he decided to send a message to Will. 

 

_ Will? It’s me, Mike. Again, I don’t know if you can hear me but, I have a plan to find you. Hold on, I’m coming for you. _

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The next day, after the memorial for Will at school. The boys and El, who they disguised using some of Nancy’s old clothes, went into the AV room to use the radio. They sat El down in front of the radio and let her do her thing. 

 

“Now what?” Dustin asked, still skeptical of El’s powers. 

 

“She’ll find him. Like she did last night. Right El?” Mike tuned the radio. 

 

El closed her eyes and flipped through radio frequencies telepathically. 

 

“She’s doing it, she’s finding him.” Mike couldn’t believe what was happening, finally after days and nights without him, Mike was going to be with Will. 

 

“This is crazy.” 

 

Lucas rolled his eyes. “Calm down, she just closed her eyes.” 

 

The light above them broke, immediately disproving Lucas’s harsh words. They were plunged completely into darkness. Through the radio, they heard a loud banging sound.  _ BANG! BANG!  _

 

Unbenounced to them, Joyce Byers was hearing the same thing, but instead of on a radio it was coming from her wall. She could hear a whimpering noise in her wall that sounded like a child. 

 

“Mom?” Will’s voice called out, distantly. 

 

“Will?” Joyce called back. 

 

Across town, the boys heard Will calling out to his mom over the radio. Mike’s blood went cold. 

 

“No way.” Lucas breathed out. 

 

“Mom?” Will called again through the wall. He sounded like he was just outside. Without even putting on shoes, Joyce rushed outside to her porch where it sounded like Will was. But he wasn’t. 

 

“Please!” She came back inside. Jesus, it sounded like he was in the wall. 

 

“Will!” Mike called into the radio. “Will it’s us! Are you there?” 

 

“Can you hear us? We’re here!” Dustin shouted too. 

 

“Mom?” Will called again. 

 

“Why can’t he hear us?” Lucas asked. 

 

“I don’t know. It’s always like that. I can hear him but he can’t hear me.” Mike sighed. 

 

Joyce teared away at the paper on the wall, revealing her son, trapped behind a wall of some sort of cocoon. 

 

“Will!” She banged on it. She could barely see his face. Just the silhouette of a boy trapped in a place he didn’t belong. From behind him, she heard a growling noise. 

 

“Mom! Mom, it’s coming!” 

 

“Tell me where you are! How do I get to you?” Joyce banged louder. 

 

“It’s like home but it’s so dark. It’s so dark and empty and cold! Mom! Mom please!” 

 

“It’s exactly like he told me.” Mike mumbled. 

 

Suddenly the radio blew a fuse and started to catch fire. Dustin grabbed the fire extinguisher and put out the fire. Mike just stood still. He could barely move. He just kept hearing Will’s words in his mind.  _ It’s so dark and empty.  _

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

  
  


“Damnit!” Mike said when he got back to his room. He kicked the foot of his bed. 

 

Lucas was right. El was untrustworthy, she lied about the gate and let Will suffer in the Upside Down. They were never even searching for Will, not really. They were looking for some stupid gate which might not even lead them to him. 

 

Mike flopped down on his bed. He thought about Lucas, and how El had completely knocked him out with one quick glance. It was….scary. Was Mike  _ scared _ of El? Certainly before he thought her powers were incredible but she had been on his side at that point. Now she was alone and probably mad at him and he didn’t want to end up hurt, or worse, at the hands of some telekinetic weirdo. 

 

He grabbed the walkie talkie off his bedside table and flipped through the stations, searching for Will’s voice. 

 

_ I miss my friends. I miss hearing all their voices and laughs that could brighten even this hellhole.  _

 

Mike immediately noticed that something was off with Will’s voice. It was shaky and weak. Then it sunk in on Mike. Will probably didn’t have access to food or water. And if he did it probably wasn’t much. His mind got kicked into overdrive as he realized that Will was alone, in a strange, place being hunted by some creature straight from hell and he was dying. Will was  _ dying _ . And Mike let it happen. He was so caught up in El and her powers that he forgot the real reason he needed her. To save Will. 

 

_ I really miss playing D&D with Mik- I hear someone.  _

 

Mike immediately shot up and listened to Will. Someone was there in the Upside Down with him. Maybe it was a rescue party. 

 

_ I’ll be back, I’m gonna go check it out.  _

 

“Please be careful, Will.” Mike mumbled under his breath. “I don’t know what I would do without you.” 

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Mike was awoken in the middle of the night to Will’s voice over the walkie talkie.    
  
_ It was Nancy, Mike’s older sister. She was here in the Upside Down.  _ __  
__  
Mike bolted upright. Nancy was in the Upside Down? Why? How? Did she find the gate?    
  


_ I heard Jonathan, he was calling for her. I followed his voice and I saw Nancy. I wanted to run to her and go back home to Jonathan and Mom and Mike but when I saw that the monster was there, I couldn’t. She had to get out first, not me. I distracted the creature and got her away but I lost the portal. I can only hope that they’re gonna keep looking for me. If that’s what they were doing.  _ __  
__  
Mike got out of bed and careful snuck into his sisters bedroom. Low and behold, there she was sleeping next to Jonathan.   
  
He thought of Will, sacrificing himself for Nance.  _ Sacrificing himself for the good of his party _ , just like during their final D&D game, where Will cast a fireball and saved the rest of the party but the demogorgon got him.  __ The Demogorgon, it got me. 

  
He had to bring Will home. This bullshit had gone on long enough. He was going to find El and make her take him to the gate. But he was going to need to get Dustin and Lucas on board first. Dustin would be easy enough seeing as they were close but Lucas was going to be challenging. For one, El did throw him across a junkyard with her mind but that wasn’t Mike’s fault. Was it? 

 

In the morning, he was going to rally Lucas and Dustin, find El and get Will back. 

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Mike was sitting in a, rather uncomfortable, chair staring at the ground trying to process what the hell had just happened. Will was back, but El was gone. She had used her powers to defeat the Demogorgon but it took her too. His heart hadn’t stopped pounding since the moment they walked into the science lab. Dustin was carrying El in his arms after nearly escaping Brenner and his goons. The distant sound of gunfire combined with the shrieks of the demogoron sent a chill up Mike’s spine. 

 

The roar of the Demogoron was getting closer and closer until it was at the door of the lab. Mike’s heart was jumping out of his chest. All of a sudden the door came crashing down and the monster leaped in. Lucas scrambled to get his wrist rocket out of his bag. The lights were flickering so much, Mike could barely see. He could barely catch his breath as the twang of the wrist rocket kept echoing in his mind. With each second, the distance between them and that thing was growing smaller. Lucas pulled back once more and launched the rock but this time something changed. Instead of bouncing off it, the rock sent the creature flying backwards. 

 

From behind them, El had gotten off the table and walked towards the Demogorgon. Her nose and ears dripping blood and around her pupils there was a red glow. Mike rushed forward to stop her but was only pushed back against a cabinet by her powers. Everything slowed down. The lights flickered faster and faster, as El reached out her hand. A single tear ran down Mike’s face as El turned one last time and looked at him.  _ Goodbye Mik-  _

 

“He’s awake.” Mike looked at Jonathan standing in the door, grinning. Mike’s eyes widen as he leapt out of his seat. He shook his friends for their slumber and rushed into Will’s room. 

 

Inside of the room, Will was lying in bed with an oxygen tube under his nose. He had an IV going into his arm and he looked like hell. There were huge bags under his eyes and he look much more fragile and delicate. Mike rushed forward and the look of surprise on Will’s face made his heart flutter. Ms. Byers and Jonathan left the kids alone to talk but not before muttering a few ‘be carefuls.’ 

 

“Will! You’ll never believe what happened when you were gone.” Lucas said. 

 

“You had a funeral!” 

 

“Troy peed himself! In front of the whole school!” They all laughed but it was a little much for poor Will who went into a coughing fit. 

 

“You okay?” Mike asked. 

 

“It got me. The Demogorgon.” Will responded. 

 

“I know. It’s okay. It’s dead. We made a new friend. Her name was El and she could control things with her mind. She killed it. But she’s gone now.” 

 

“Oh.” 

 

Mike turned to Dustin and Lucas. “Hey could I get a minute alone with Will?” They both nodded and left. 

 

“I never stopped looking. Even when it got me in trouble, I never stopped searching for you. I knew you were alive because I heard your messages. Over the walkie talkie. I guess I tapped into your frequency but I couldn’t respond.” 

 

“Oh, oh.” Will’s cheeks turned a dark red with embarrassment as he remembered some of the things he had said. “I didn’t mean any of that stuff I said about you. It was just the thrill of the moment I guess.” 

  
“You didn’t?” Mike looked directly at Will, sadden now that his efforts for love were just efforts and nothing more.    
  
“Did you want me to?” Mike sat on the chair next to Will. He nodded.    
  
“Well, I can. And- and I want to.”    
  
Mike reached over and grabbed Will’s hand, interlocking their fingers together.     
  
“I’m so happy you safe. And here with me.” Mike smiled.    
  
“Me too.”

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> feedback is always appreciated


End file.
